A few weeks ago, as spring was just beginning to give way to summer, I took a whirlwind trip to Jirisan National Park in the south central part of the country. As South Korea’s biggest national park, it offers some amazing scenery and spectacular views! The only unfortunate thing is that there’s no major city nearby, so getting there without a car of my own proved to be just as exhuasting as actually climbing around on the mountain (literally 12 hours of roundtrip travel and 12 hours of hiking/being out and about, all in the same span of 24 hours). But it was worth it!

This year the holidays, Children’s Day and Buddha’s Birthday, occurred quite conveniently to award us in Korea with a four-day weekend. My boyfriend and I decided to camp for four days and three nights in Jirisan National Park (지리산국립공원).

One can catch a bus from the Sasang Bus Terminal in Busan to several different spots, but we decided to camp closest to the highest peak at the Jungsan-ri Camping Area (중산리야영장).

The bus that leaves directly for Jungsan (중산정류장) from Busan doesn’t leave very often, but it’s not difficult to go from Busan to Jinju (진주시외버스터미널), and then buy a ticket there to Jungsan. A one-way trip costs approximately 13,600₩ (Busan to Jungsan).

I'm giving myself a congratulatory pat on the back as we speak! I managed to get up the highest mountain in Korea, and back down again without tears or seriously hurting myself! Hurray!

The trip started out not so great. We just stepped through the door of Nick's apartment late on Friday night when I realised I'd left my trainers at mine, across the other side of the city. It took me about 50 minutes to get home on the metro, just to pick them up. I was trying not to see it as a bad omen as i crawled into bed after 12, with the alarm set for 4:45am. Ouch.

This weekend David and I explored Mount Jirisan. Jirisan has many different hiking trails. We chose to walk the Unbong (운봉) –Inwol (인월) Trail (Distance: 9.4 km, Time: around four hours) The trail was easier than we thought as it was very flat. It was well sign posted with red arrows and there was a well defined path.

My hiking group does these trips identified as overnighters. Don't get the term confused with a weekend trip, say, departing on a nice Saturday afternoon, staying in a hostel/motel/hotel, a brisk hike the next day and then going home in the early evening. No, they are definitely not that. Instead, they entail meeting at a rented bus at 11:30pm on a Friday night (after a full days work), traveling 3-4 hours in the night/"sleeping," and starting a climb up a mountain at 3-4 am in the dark. The hikes will last 12-16 hours and we'll head back for home late in the night.